13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Police identify boy struck and killed by school bus

Police identify boy struck and killed by school bus

Cat Andersen/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - The Washington Township community is mourning the tragic death of a Spring Mill Elementary fourth grader who was struck and killed by a school bus Friday morning.

A school bus dropped off 10-year-old Christopher Beltz in the parking lot next to a group of parked cars at around 8:20 am at the school on 82nd Street and Spring Mill Road. He had to move through the parked cars and cross the bus drop-off lane to get to the school entrance.

Police say the boy ran into the path of another school bus which was moving. The bus hit him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

School remained in session after the accident, but counselors were on hand to help students cope.

"You can't even voice the sorrow that we feel today and the loss that the Washington Township community and the Spring Mill community feels," said James Mervilde, superintendent of Washington Township Schools. He said the school's role was to help the family of the young victim as well as other families with children in the school system.

"It's a tragic situation. He runs between the parked cars and darts right out in front of [the bus driver]," said IMPD Lt. Jeff Duhamell, who said another student may have been on the bus and witnessed the incident.

"It's just a tragedy," said a parent of a Spring Mill student. "My heart and prayers go out to the family."

Police say Christopher was let off his bus in the school parking lot. He had to cross through the parking lot to get inside the school.

"You can see there's a median with parked cars there. The student ran between we believe a van and another car right in front of one of the other buses as it's exiting eastbound," said Lt. Duhamell.

"This is not normally how it is done. It is done very carefully," said neighbor Janine Bercovitz. "There would never be a drop-off between cars like that bus dropped off. The bus was between the two lines of cars down here and the child then had to run through cars."

Parents told Eyewitness News the buses normally drop students at the sidewalk where workers with radios guide the students into the building, praising the principal for her efforts in keeping students safe.

"She has gone above and beyond to make sure our students are safe," said mother Denise Mosteller.

Mosteller said the school's principal even recently repainted parking lot lines for safer morning drop-offs.

"She changed that because it wasn't safe for our kids. She has put rules in place to make sure our kids are safe and that's always been something that's very important to her and she's gone above and beyond," she said.

The bus driver was given a mandatory blood test, which is routine in fatality investigations. Preliminary results of those tests show the driver was not impaired.

Also, the bus was inspected bumper to bumper.

"They check the entire bus, the brake systems, the lighting systems the mirrors and so forth," said Lt. Duhamell.

"Our school personnel are very diligent about how the students get on and off the bus," said Mervilde.

Police say now they're investigating the system that's in place to let students off at the school and they are looking into the use of the second lane as a drop-off point. Administrators said they couldn't give a clear answer at this point.

"Obviously we're going to pay attention to what comes out of this investigation. That goes without saying," said Mervilde. "Those of you who've been to Spring Mill know that there are certain routines that happen in the parking lot and we'll review those."

For now police have blocked off the outer lane where the fourth grader got off the bus.

School officials and police notified the child's family immediately following the incident. The school system also implemented its telephone notification system to send a message to all homes with children in Washington Township Schools.

Mervilde said the parents of Spring Mill students "need to know their children are safe and being cared for in terms of their emotional and physical safety."

Beltz was a special needs students who rode the bus to Spring Mill from another school daily. It's unclear how familiar the bus driver was with Springmill's driving patterns.

(Eyewitness News reporter David MacAnally contributed to this story.)